The Road to Aberdeen

As I left the protected area of the Hoh Rain Forest in Olympic National Park, I had mixed feelings about the Olympic Peninsula. We went from beauty and solitude to destruction and disregard in a matter of minutes.

The road to Aberdeen is lined with fields of giant stumps. Scattered sparingly between them are tiny evergreens. 'New Forest' the sign said. It should have read 'Dead Remains'. Other signs we passed read 'Managed Forest' and 'Working Forest'. I wanted to re-write them to read 'Mismanaged Land' and 'Dying'.

Surprisingly the worst forest devastation I saw was within the boundaries of the Quinalt Indian Reservation. Branches and trunks were piled as debris around hundreds of giant cut trees. I had expected to see the Indian reservation as an oasis of living trees. Again I was wrong.

As we continued driving, we went in and out of the boundary of Olympic National Park. Huge signs announced our exit and re-entry. But these signs seemed unnecessary. The dramatic transition from clear cut land to land with trees was enough. On our route we passed so many logging trucks that I began to feel sick. Janet commented that the loggers must be chomping at the bit to get into the park.

It is sad that these trees, which harbor ecosystems for so many animals, are seen by the forestry department solely as wood to be chopped. Signs boasting 'Harvested 1926' are disturbing. Other signs 'Re-planted 1928' might offset my anger if it weren't for their neighboring signs stating 'Second harvest 1992'.

The mountains here were once beautiful. Now they are wastelands. Clear cutting has ruined so much of the landscape. And now that the President has reversed the spotted owl bill, the logging here has intensified. Trees are being felled everywhere. Perhaps this is an effort to cut as many trees as possible as quickly as possible before the bill is enacted again.

By the time we arrived in Aberdeen, I was thoroughly disgusted with the Forestry Service. Their mission was not to preserve and protect the forests, as I had thought, but to harvest it as quickly as possible. One sign that we passed seemed to sum up my feelings. When it was erected, it had read 'Trees for Tomorrow'. It has since been vandalized to read 'Crops for Today'.

Aberdeen seems to be a town with divided feelings about its history. In the center of town, the Thriftway sign proclaims 'We support the timber industry'. Perhaps the grocery store across the street does not. The Thriftway building is decorated with a richly colored mural of a logging truck backed up to a saw mill. But the store across the street, with its bare and tired walls, is more representative of the rest of this town. Downtown Aberdeen is old. The buildings are in need of repair. It appears that here the heyday of lumber is gone.

If it were up to me, there would be no more logging here at all. These forests need years to replenish themselves, and taking any trees only makes that process take longer. Clear cutting should be eliminated, replaced with selective cutting and other practices that allow the forests to continue to live.

By clear cutting these hills, Washington is destroying not only the natural environment, but the towns here as well. Eventually the loggers will be out of work; there will be nothing left to cut.

We drove to the end of downtown and I looked out across the harbor. Piles of water-soaked logs sat in the sun. They will not grow there, they will not provide shade. They will sit dead, waiting for a mill somewhere to grind them to dust.